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The contest runs from July 1 to July 31, and voting will then run from August 1 through August 7. The winner will be announced on August 8 and contacted via PM. Contest details and directions may be found HERE!

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As I told you my theory in a PM, in the walking dead atleast, I think it's a matter of how you smell, once you start smelling dead, the decay start they will lose interest and zombies in atleast the walking dead seem to have an extremely keen sense of smell, in spite of them being dead, so they will notice it a great deal faster than we as people will.

As I mentioned also in the PM and that it's a personal theory, if a person was to rise again at a zombie within a few minutes, then there might be a slight chance that other zombies would still attack it, cause it still wouldn't truly smell dead, however due to them seemingly having a very strong sense of smell, they might notice it faster.

EDIT: as I mentioned, this is mostly my own theory based on the behavior seen and very basic knowledge of what happens to the body when decay starts.

I think zombies have some sort of heat vision sense of smell type thing. So they don't want dead flesh because they like it warm and beating. Maybe they can't eat dead meat cause it wont sustain them.

Any thoughts on this. I elaborated more in the other thread. But have now changed my mind. I don't think they can or will eat the dead.

You actually don't see the dead eating the dead in the Walking Dead Series at all. I don't think anyways. I just rewatched season 1 today and am on episode 1 of season 2. And I haven't caught any sign of the dead eating the dead.

What if that man from Walking Dead tried to hang himself, but did not do it right and just ended up hanging, without killing himself? He might not have been able to free himself and was just a hanging piece of meat.

My theory is that Zombies are not canabals because they do not eat their own species, (other zombies). Only humans.
I think that was quoted in a movie, maybe Dawn of the Dead? (original?)

There is a book, called Monster Nation, that offers an explanation to how/why the zombies kill and eat living humans and why they stop shortly after the kill. A few chapters are written as first person zombie (an intelligent one, unlike the rest) and shows what she sees. All living creatures emit a bright, warm glow that only zombies can see. The light attracts undead, who are compelled to ingest the light, and corresponding flesh, to get as close to the warmth as possible. The catch is that living creatures begin to lose this glow as they die, kinda like a meal going cold. So, the zombies only fed while the glow was present, with was usually just a few minutes after death, and then leave the dead bodies alone and move on after the next one.

I remember watching a movie, I believe it was Land of the Dead, and there was one scene showing the zombies eating dead meat. Like one zombie was holding a severed leg or arm and was eating it corn on the cob style.

This is sort of a pointless debate, in all honesty. It's like asking for the specifics on vampires, goblins, or pixies. They're imaginary creatures, and with each story (or game system, as the case may be) their parameters are a little different.

When you really come down to it, zombies only eat living flesh because it's more terrifying that way. Any internal logic you make up for them will only hold true for a specific iteration of zombie. And chances are, the author hasn't thought things through that closely, so you'll probably find inconsistencies if you squint your eyes and scrutinize their work closely enough.

Body Temperature:
Normal body temperature during life is 98.6 degrees F. After death, the body loses heat progressively until it equilibrates with that of the surrounding medium. The rate of this heat loss is approximately 1.5 degrees per hour until the environmental temperature is attained, then it remains stable. Obviously, this measure is greatly effected by location. A body in the snow in Minnesota in January and one in a Louisiana swamp in August will lose heat a widely divergent rates. These factors must be considered in any “estimate” of time of death.
The criminalist who processes the scene should take a body temperature and measure the temperature of the surrounding medium--air, water, snow, earth (if the body is buried). Ideally, the body temperature is taken rectally. Obviously, the sooner after death the body is found, the more accurately time of death can be assessed by this method. Once the body reaches ambient temperature, all bets are off.

Also note- I didn't say debate. I said find sources so we can compile a sort of zombiedex lol.

Walking Dead bugged me most because they're inconsistent within their own story.

There are all sorts of interesting things that can happen to a person when they're dead/dying. For example, I can slap and EKG on somebody and see a nice, regular heart rate (not likely, but it does happen every once in a while). The heart is still getting those nice shocks, but the musculature just isn't working. This is simply known as Pulseless Electrical Activity, and the person is still just as dead. (But it does tell us their wiring is intact and working.)

So, when you die, eventually you stiffen. The waste from the cells don't get removed, the blood starts to coagulate, what oxygen was left kicking around gets used up, and you become ready to be buried / cremated / viking burial / whatever.

What does that mean for zombies? A person being eaten by a zombie dies. Remember Sean of the Dead, when that guy got ripped apart? He was dead. The zombies had struck him out of existence but they kept feeding on his body parts. Had he had a chance to stiffen up a bit? Probably not such a tasty treat.

In other words, zombies and I have a bit in common. We like our meat warm and pink, not stiff and gray.

Also, just as a quick edit: If you think that's way too serious for the topic of zombies, check out these EMS protocols that were written for dealing with a zombie.